Set Points / Plateaus are they real?

Was told today that the weight I am (which has been stable for about 4 months now)....may be the weight that my body is happy at and I may not lose any more.  I know I should be able to lose more.

Do you believe in setpoints etc and suggestions to break it?  I've tried lower calories, higher calories, liquids...you name it.  It's like pre-WLS life again :(

I personally can only lose weight by eating fewer calories and doing more exercise.  A pound a week is excellent for me.  I have to stay at 900 calories a day for a week to drop one pound.

For me there is no set point or plateau.  It is all determined by what I eat and how much I move.

I think it's bogus.  If you eat fewer calories than your body needs, you will lose weight.  

That said, when I got close to 180, which was my lowest ever adult weight, I stayed there for FOREVER.  Why?  Because I started sabotaging myself.  It was like I had a mental block about getting lower than that.  

I tend to agree with Gwen on this one.  I've heard from several different professions that it all boils down to calories in/calories out.

The harder part is figuring out your personal BMR to have an accurate calories out calculation. 

The Harris - Benedict Equations exist, but I can't believe that they're totally accurate.  

Women: BMR = 655 + ( 4.35 x weight in pounds ) + ( 4.7 x height in inches ) - ( 4.7 x age in years )

Men: BMR = 66 + ( 6.23 x weight in pounds ) + ( 12.7 x height in inches ) - ( 6.8 x age in years )

It seems like it's probably easier and more relevant to experiment.  :P

Although.. that equation tells me my BMR is 1507.65 at the moment, which perhaps isn't that far off.  So who knows!

I was given a different 'ballpark' formula before and it and the equation you provided are off by a lot (4200 vs 2620).

What my understanding was that the modifiers for each person are different -- for example, for me it could be 6.31 * weight instead of 6.23 and 12.8 for height instead of 12.7.  It can make a difference when you get down to the point you are at -- if your personal modifiers gave you a BMR of 1400 vs 1507, that's essentially a pound a month you aren't losing.

Right - hence my belief that they can't be all that accurate :P

According to that formula my BMR is 1288.65.  Does that mean that I should be able to maintain my weight at around 1200-1300 calories/day? (not accounting for any exercise, etc.) I'm not sure how to use the BMR number.  Right now I am still losing (although I just hit goal today, yay!) and I am still eating 600-800 calories/day.

BMR is just the energy it takes to maintain life functions.  So basically any movement at all is an extra caloric expenditure.  BMR is what it takes to just sit there and breathe and do the peristalsis thing and beat your heart, etc.  

But who knows how relevant/accurate it actually is, so I wouldn't do anything based on the number this equation gives you!